Monday, October 26, 2009

Reader Question: Human Drop


Reader: 

My question is about sizing a suit properly.  I am about 6 feet tall and weigh about 185-190 pounds and I just finished playing college football.  I am not really muscular but in order to get the proper fit in the chest I have to go with a suit with pants that are much too big in the waist.  I understand I need to get the suit altered, but they can only take-in the waist so much right?


Thanks SB!



SB:

Hey. Thanks for reading.

Like alot of my friends, you have an athletic build which makes it hard to fit suits. Unfortunately for guys like you, the standard suit comes with a 6 or 7 inch "drop", meaning the waist measurement of the pants is 6 or 7 inches smaller than the chest measurement of the jacket (i.e. suit size 40, waist size 33 or 34). Since we are all human and rarely fit this standard mold, this makes it difficult for many guys to buy suits off-the-rack. 

Unless you are ready to make the jump to custom, you need to buy suit separates rather than suits. Think of it as a matching jacket and pants sold separately of which you can choose any size. Get the jacket in whatever size fits you in the shoulders and chest, then you can easily have the sides taken-in and the sleeves lengthened/shortened at your local tailoring shop (or have it done at the store when you buy the jacket). Get the pants in whatever size fits your waist best, the less taking-in/letting-out the better.

Hope this helps,
SB

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can lengthen a sleeve? The things I don't know about tailoring. . .how do they do it?

RGreenstreet said...

The question sounds deceiving -- if you need to get a proper fit in the waist, why would you go up a size in jacket? The BIGGER your waist the BIGGER the jacket. If your waist is SMALL then you would be stuck buying a SMALLER jacket size. But, then you mention taking the waist in.

Dan is right on the money, regardless of the issue buy suit separates.

Anonymous said...

I think he needs a bigger jacket and then the pants are too big that match on the suit- another option would be made-to-measure suits where you give them all the 'essential' measurements and they make a 'cookie-cutter' suit to fit the specifications

Janine said...

Good idea about buying separates - sometimes you have to think outside the box a little to make style work for you.

BTW, interesting blog - I'm emailing the url to my brother who is in dire need of some fashion tips that don't revolve around sweat pants and nikes.

Anonymous said...

I read that J Crew only sells seperates- and they have a great new spring collection coming out